Plaza Morena seeks Dodge Center market

Jose Herrera, owner of Plaza Morena Campestre Grill restaurants in Owatonna and Albert Lea, said he hopes to open a third restaurant/bar in the former Dairy Queen building in Dodge Center.

He was awaiting a liquor license and hopes to purchase the building from Minneapolis-based Dairy Queen this week.

Herrera also owns Gran Plaza Mexican Grill in Faribault. He closed a Rochester store early this year, ahead of a planned partial demolition of the Miracle Mile shopping center.

He said Dodge Center’s former DQ building, built in the mid-1970s and closed about a year-and-a-half ago, would be spruced up but kept much as it is, with booths and such.

“I believe we’ll have good business there, and also we have very good food,” he said. “It’s a small town, and we get a lot of business from around there, so why not? Lots of people asked me to build one, so this is the perfect time to open the business there.”

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